The Cat Lady
A puzzle-based adventure about a depressed woman granted immortality.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
The Cat Lady is a 2012 horror graphic adventure game developed by Harvester Games for Microsoft Windows and Linux. It is the second installment in the Devil Came Through Here trilogy, following the original 2009 release of Downfall, with the final installment, Lorelai, released in 2019. The game is noted for its simplified control scheme using the arrow keys, Enter key for interaction, and Space key for inventory/actions, as well as its mature themes of depression, suicide, and cancer.
- Developer
- Harvester Games
- Release Year
- 2012
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, Linux
- Genre
- Horror graphic adventure
- Series
- Devil Came Through Here trilogy
- Protagonist
- Susan Ashworth
Lore & Background
The game follows Susan Ashworth, a chronically depressed 42-year-old woman living alone in a dilapidated council flat in England, known derisively as 'the cat lady' for summoning stray cats by playing the piano. After committing suicide by overdose, she awakens in a strange afterlife where a mysterious woman called 'The Queen of Maggots' grants her immortality and tasks her with ridding the world of five Parasites. Susan returns to life, only to be captured by Dr. Xavier Zelmann, a serial killer, and must escape his torture dungeon.
Reader's Guide
The Cat Lady received generally favorable reviews, with an aggregated score of 81/100 on Metacritic based on 11 reviews. GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd praised it as a touching character portrait that is 'authentically, poignantly askew.' The game won 'Best Story' in an unspecified award. Its significance lies in its handling of heavy themes like depression and suicide through a horror lens, and its unique control scheme that limits player movement to arrow keys. The game's canonical ending sees Susan learning to live with her depression after Mitzi's death, finding solace in online depression groups.
Did You Know?
- The game is played using the arrow keys, Enter key for interaction, and Space key for inventory/actions, with the ESC key for the Save/Load menu.
- All character dialogue is fully voiced and cut-scenes cannot be skipped.
- The Queen of Maggots is voiced by Margaret Cowen in The Cat Lady, but in Lorelai the character is voiced by a different actress.
- Lynsey Frost voiced Susan Ashworth in The Cat Lady, but did not reprise the role in the remaster of Downfall (Susan does not appear in Downfall) nor as a cameo in Lorelai (the cameo is a different character, not voiced b
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